Mississauga (August 12, 2017): Mississauga’s famous celebration square played host to the 12th annual TD mosaic festival and rock the coliseum. A festival dedicated to a diverse selection of native Canadian, national and international folk, world and fusion music, dance, visual arts and culinary delights. The event was spread over two stages that held audience captive with some scintillating performances by world class artists. The festival was inaugurated by a seminal set of visionaries in the presence of the eminent personalities representing the Government of Canada , including the Mayor of Mississauga.
|‘….dance depicts hunter-animal movements….’ Thomas, Mi’Kmaq artist |
The audience started to get a flavour of indeginous music from David R.Maracle and were captivated by the movements of the Mi’kmaq artist Thomas Clair. Both of them made the crowd to not just clap their hands but also move their body. Thomas came all the way down and taught the audience some interesting steps. People, especially the kids were awestruck seeing the beautiful attire and hearing the soulful music.
With Friday evening unwinding itself, the crowd slowly began to grow. The main stage was getting ready to witness one of the unique Indian dance forms – ‘Chhau dance’. We had artist travelling all the way from India and they depicted some of the excerpts from ancient Indian mythology. The organizers thanked the Indian high commission; in Ottawa for help bring this UNESCO endorsed art form to the TD fest!
Meantime, the amphitheatre at the Celebration square began to rock! We had bands – The Honest Heart Collective, Polarity , From far and wide, Animatist, Downturns, Breaching Vista, Island Shivers, Pony, Glty and many more lined up to ‘Rock the Coliseum-2017 ’. Metal, Pop, Rock, Alt-rock, Punk to some supersonic vibrations kept the crowd on the edge of their seats in a constant state of tranquillity!
CMN news got an opportunity to connect exclusively with Justin from the rock band – Island Shivers! This two member band took the stage to release their brand new album Lit.Fade.Repeat. Justin commented that he is already looking forward to come back next year!
The crowd were enthralled to hear Jasmine, the lead singer of Polarity – the progressive rock group from Mississauga/ Toronto area; while Danielle Fernandes of the band – Animatist mesmerised the crowd with her saxophone and fuelled some adrenaline with her energy!!
While one half of the celebration square was head banging the other got wooed to the voice of – Bushra Ansari , who is the Canadian Pakistan cultural ambassador and to a myriad of sufi and Qawali singing by Javed Bashir. Both these crowd pulling singers were accompanied by some of the finest musicians.
The world class hip-hop ambassadors – Ground Illusionz’ couldn’t have got a better day to keep the eyes of the audience glued to their shakes! Yes, 12 Aug embarking the world Hip-Hop day – it wasn’t just the Google Doodle but Mississauga’s own dance group did some magic. They performed at both the stages and everyone from six to sixty got some break loose!
| ‘…… This event brought out Canada’s inclusion and diversity values at Mississauga’s celebration square’. – Shreyas Vaidya , visitor to the TD Mosaic -2017 |
The pinnacle of the TD Mosaic fest was when the Indian pop-rock and Bollywood playback singer – Kailash Kher ! Like a snake charmer he made the crowd dance to his tunes. One of the visitors when asked what made him to go awe hearing Kailash Kher said – ‘ Kailash kher remains down to earth even after all these years of fame and success; with his inimitable voice as captivating as ever. This event brought out Canada’s inclusion and diversity values at Mississauga’s celebration square’.
The ‘Kailasa’ band that accompanied Kailash Kher took the main stage and when ‘…Teri Deewani..’ was performed magic was witnessed with almost everyone levitating!!
The TD Mosaic festival witnessed more talents from several other world class artists and the crowd dispersed just to keep their fingers crossed for some more time until the 2018 TD Mosaic and Rock the Coliseum schedule gets announced.
Report by: Arun Chokkappa (CMN News)
